Friday, December 14, 2012

Two years ago I posted this story
about high-speed rail in California and had so many comments I thought I would
repost for my new readers. But now, even after two years, nothing seems to have
changed and, in fact, political positions have sadly become even more locked in
place as the costs continue to sky-rocket.

Santa’s huge toy shop in one of the
big department stores; a long line of children wait to tell Santa what they
want for Christmas.

The first child climbs up on Santa’s
knee with the help of one of the elves.

“And
what’s your name little boy?”

“Billy,
Santa Claus, Billy.”

“Have
you been good?”

“Oh
yes Santa, I have been very, very good.”

“Excellent
Billy, excellent, and what do you want for Christmas?

“Oh
Santa I want an erector set to build bridges for my brother, a whole village of
dollhouses for my little sister, and a turkey with all the stuff and stuffing for
my dad, see he’s lost his job.”

“I’m
sorry to hear about that, I’ll see what I can do. Billy, you want so much for
your family and that’s good, very good, but Billy, what do you want for being so
good?”

Billy
thought for a moment then turned his head to Santa with a huge smile. “Santa I
want a toy train. It would be the most wonderfulous thing in the whole world, a
toy train that I can play with, run the track all through my room and maybe
even in the hallway. It just has to be the most special and wonderous train,
all shiny and sparkly and new. And, oh, oh, Santa that would be so great and it
would be real cool ‘cause none of friends would have a train like it and they all would wan’na
come over and see it and play with me in my room. Please Santa, please.”

“But
Billy I gave you a set of Hot Wheels and racetrack a few years ago and a really
cool airplane and terminal set last year. Aren’t they fun to play with anymore?”

“Nah,
Santa. I broke the racetrack and the planes just aren’t any fun anymore, but a
toy train would be real cool, did I say the other kids would wan’na come over
and see it.”

“Yes
you did, but Billy, that is a very big toy for someone your size.”

“No.
I’m a big boy, see!” Billy puffed himself up real big.

“Yes,
I guess you are, now that you are all puffed up. Yes, Billy, Santa has to agree
that you are a big boy now and can take care of such a wonderfulous toy. Santa
will see what he can do. Just watch for a big ‘green’ box under your Christmas tree.”

“Oh
thank you Santa, thank you.”

Billy,
with the help of the elves (who were all smiling and singing, I've Been Working on the Railroad), climbed off
Santa’s knee and slid down the slide into a huge pile of ‘green’ cotton candy.
Billy was in heaven.

The
next child in line wasn’t sure about Santa, he was so big and his suit was all
red and furry. The bells on all the elves (who were scurrying about still
talking about the good little boy, Billy), jingled and jangled creating such a
wonderous din. This all scared the little girl. When the elves helped her onto
Santa’s knee, Santa wasn’t sure what was going to happen. He was afraid for his
suit.

“And
what’s your name little girl?”

“Sally,”
she said quietly, still shaking.

“That’s
a pretty name, have you been a good little girl?”

Sally
thought for a moment. She looked at the Big Guy and all the elves dressed in
'green' elf costumes, 'green' cotton candy billowed all around them, it was a
wonderous sight.

“Santa,
I have not been a good little girl. I have saved my lunch money and not given it
to my friends at school like my teacher says I should. I used it to help my
dad and I bought him a new tie, he was trying to get a job, and he did Santa, he
was so happy. And I yelled at my brother when he bought some ice cream just
after he had a whole mouthful of candy. So you see, I have not been a good
girl.”

“I
see, yes Sally, those aren’t good things to do, you should always mind your
teacher.”

“Yes
Santa.”

“But
Sally, the elves and I know you can improve and be a better human being. I just know you want
something for Christmas. Billy, that fine young man, who sat on this very knee
just before you; see, he's playing in the 'green' cotton candy, said all he wanted was a toy train, all shiny and sparkly and
new. Wouldn’t you want a toy train? Santa has a whole box full of them at the
North Pole.”

Sally
thought for another moment then looked over at the next child standing in line,
her name was Tiffany. She wore a bright dress and was all smiles.

“Can
you hurry Sally?” Tiffany demanded, stamping her shiny Mary-janes. “I just have to talk to Santa and, unlike you, I
have been a very good little girl.” Even the elves could hear Tiffany’s strong
Valley Girl accent.

Sally
looked back at Santa. “Santa, I really don’t want a toy train; I know that if I
get it my parents will have to buy more track so that I can run it down the
hallway and then I will have to get more cars and a new engine and then I will
have to buy one of those fancy train stations and I will have to get a little
bridge to run the train over the other tracks and then a crossing thing with
arms that go up and down and then I will have to get a huge box to keep them it
and besides, it will be fun for a little while, then I will get bored and want
something new and then it will just sit around and be in the way and besides it
will only go in a circle and not really go anywhere really fast.”

Santa
was shocked; not because she said it all in one sentence and one breath, it was
because everyone wanted a toy train, that’s why he had a box full.

“Sally,
you just aren’t a very good girl; you only think of yourself and not others.”

Sally
was saddened to hear that from Santa who had always been a hero to her.

“Santa,”
Sally said, “why don’t you give the toy train to Tiffany, she is always a good
little girl and wears really nice clothes, nice shoes, has a wonderful tan, and always has
a smile. I think she gives her lunch money to the teacher who uses it for good
things. Yes, Tiffany is a good little girl, give her the toy train. She
deserves it and besides I have heard that her parents are real rich and can buy
her all the tracks and stations she wants.”

Santa
was very pleased, he had so many trains to give away and the line of good
little boys and girls disappeared around the ‘green’ cotton candy mountain.

Santa,
pulled from his reverie, felt a tug on his sleeve; Sally looked up at him with
her sad eyes. “Santa I really don’t want anything for myself, but if you can,
my little brother wants a Red Ryder BB Rifle.”

Santa
was stunned and outraged beyond belief what his ears had heard. He pushed Sally slid off his knee and past all the 'green' cotton candy and watched as she crawled to the slide and started down its slippery surface. But she stopped just for second and took one last look at the Big Guy and all the wonderous elves and the piles of 'green' cotton candyand heard them exclaim ere she slid out of sight, “Sally, you’ll shoot your
eye out.”

Friday, December 7, 2012

In the early 21st Century, I was traveling through London
(my favorite city), and wishing to enjoy the warm afternoon, took one of those
open upper-deck tour buses through the city. We left in front of a Starbucks, and
after completing the loop through the old and newerportions of this ancient city, I had counted 47 Starbucks. Mind you, this was
over ten years ago, my guess, there are now 500. What city in America doesn’t
have a Starbucks? It is a rite-of-passage from hick to chic.

Developers will kill to get a Starbucks on their front
corner. Where Starbucks goes so does the neighborhood, more shops, better
demographics, a follow-the-leader mentality develops. And to be honest I love
the stuff, I drink it daily, own some shares, and eat lunch there once and
while. I have even found a Starbucks on a pier in a fishing village in Turkey.
They are literally everywhere and according to their growth projections, intend
to have beach front stores in the Arctic when the ice cap melts. They believe
the green in Greenland means opportunity.

So, earlier this year I was making a stop in my ancestral
home in Northern Michigan, Traverse City, to have a book signing and reading
(see right, Elk River). This comfortable town, with an historic pedigree and wonderful location, just whispers in the ear, “Relax, kick-back, enjoy.”

So as we approached, after an easy drive up from Chicago,
I turned to my wife and said the infamous words, “Frappaccino?”

“Yes,” was the quick reply. So for the next fifteen
minutes we drove up and down Front Street and State Street looking for the
magical elixir. Nada, nothing, zilch, neyetsky, bumcus. What the heck is going
on? This is the 21st Century; even a dock in Turkey has a Starbucks for Peets
sake. Why not in my hometown? And, to be honest, I still don’t know why.

There is rumored to be one buried inside a Meijer’s Super
Store, well super. And it’s on US-31 a few miles outside of town. Who cares?
This is a town with 15,000 people for crying out loud, and, in summer, swells
to three or four times that with tourists from cities like Chicago, Detroit,
Ann Arbor and Lansing Michigan – all adequately served by the Seattle based
chain of dope dealers caffeine pushers. You would think …

Front Street - Fall

The town’s bookstore, where I was signing, is a delight,
Horizon Books, and they have a nice coffee bar that is well attended and
quite good. But it’s not a Starbucks (one second while I sip), not the life
giver, the morning kick-starter, the boot-in-the-butt we need to get rolling in
the 21st Century.

Why not Traverse City? I really don’t know. I Googled it
this morning and there is still only one, the US-31 store (if it’s even that
big!). Is it a conspiracy to punish these fine people for the great beaches and
less than crazy lifestyle? Is it because delivery costs are too high (doubt
that – see Turkey above), is it because the local government has passed
anti-franchise laws (don’t know), is it some fallout from the whole Michigan
thing (whatever that is), I really don’t know. It’s a mystery.

Urbanists can scratch their collective heads over this.
For me, well, it's a strange one and when we hit Grand Rapids (10 listed) on
the way back to Chicago, I fulfilled my wife’s wish.

Thursday, November 29, 2012

Are we there yet? This seems to be the tag line for
almost every optimistic article about the current national trends in new home
sales (old homes sales, too). This article is a good snap-shot (remember those from
the pre-pixel age).

In this article the authors point to a doubling of new
home sales from their current level, “in the next several years.” And
interesting prophecy, I throw a challenge here because there is a significant
lack of planning going on to support the availability of new housing in the
near future (three years or less, especially in California). It takes at least
three years to plan and receive final approval for any project over one acre in
size, especially if near any existing residential developments. I suggest the
authors are dreaming and as a result prices will steadily climb.

This article, and I really love these, lists the 10
cities with the highest home prices, the author notes that only two cities are
not in (close to bankrupt) California. Go figure. Now as a man who believes in
the marketplace and the all things supply and demand, I’m not surprised. Yet,
it is a head-scratcher and you wonder either how sustainable it is in the long
term, or how depressive to business it is in the short term (housing costs vs.
wages).

With everyone trying to tell Detroit what to do (and creating
rancor and fear as a result), the residents are trying their best to confront
the do-gooders and intellectuals using Detroit as an urban blank canvas. “Clear
homes, make way for the future!” would scare any property owner hanging on by a
thread. This brilliant article lays out many of the issues and planning teams
involved with Detroit’s future, yet one thing is very apparent, change and
rebirth will come from the bottom up, not like 20th Century planning, that forced
change, hard and brutal change, from the top down.

Newgeography.com is one of my favorite urban blogs. With
the talent of Joel Kotkin, Wendell Cox, and other guests it has become a
touchstone on the current state of cities across the world. In this article by
Kotkin, he challenges all the warm and fuzzy notions of the northeastern cities
and lays out, in almost painful ways, the real changes to America that are
underway. It is well worth the read and please continue to follow newgeography.com.

Friday, November 23, 2012

Since it’s impossible to
hide from the fact of this self-imposed follow-up holiday (and yes it is a
holiday – since hardly anyone works today) BLACK FRIDAY, I am wondering why
retail gets such a bad review these days.

Every politician and city
father is desperate for a great retail-shopping season, which traditionally
begins the day after Thanksgiving and runs until Christmas Eve. Now it’s anyone
guess. Thanksgiving is now toast; it is like a pre-party dinner warm up and
strategy session prior to the trip to 10:00 run to Wal-Mart with all the aunts
and cousins. Sad.

The Occupy Best-Buy Movement

When the volume of retail
dollars is shown on graphs and charts on the TV news (with hordes of shoppers
queued holding small children over their heads) what they really are saying is,
“See that number, multiply it by 8.5%, that’s the state’s piece of the action.
More action, more pieces.” And lord knows we need more pieces.

Now that most large
retailers (called big box retail for the obvious reason – 250,000 square feet
of consumer bliss) have turned into strange reflections of the Occupy Movement
with hundreds if not thousands camped out for a week before BLACK FRIDAY (now a
week long holiday for them), all to buy stuff.

Shopping can be fun,
adventuresome, enlightening, disturbing, revealing, satisfying, and confusing.
Must be that hunter-gatherer thing. Bag a big-screen TV, stand with foot on the
box, like Teddy Roosevelt, and show the world your prize. Take a snap with your
new 8MP Android phone – send it to all your FB friends, go viral. Conquest can
be fun.

But now, there is a
blandness creeping in the retail scene. I used to travel to see new things,
find cool and interesting stuff. Now you walk through the
Macy’sBloomingdalesNorsdtrumPennySears store, much is all the same. The same
stuff you will find in Marks & Spencer and Harrods in London, Bon Marche in
Paris, and probably Beijing (where most of the stuff comes from anyway). So
what is a retailer to do?

First they are adding living
rooms and comfortable seating, “Come, stay, enjoy. Coffee? Much to choose from.
Food? Around the corner. Bathroom? The finest.” Someday you may want to live here.
There was a time, when I was a young designer of retail centers, the client
said, “No seating! If they sit, they’re not shopping.” Now, move in, stay,
bring the family, the game will be on at 1:00.

Next, concierge services.
The Grove in LA (amongst others) has a drive-up valet and they park your car
and will even wash it while you browse the stores. More of this will be coming.
They even sell cars in the malls – Santana Row in San Jose, California has a
Tesla dealership.

Wi-FI, schmi-fi. You MUST
have WiFi, work-tables, power outlets, and couches. Period.

Casinos are now more than
just places to add to the coffers of the state, they are expanded their retail
where they are now competitive with local retail centers. There will be more of
this, in fact at one large Indian casino, I was told, they are investigating
major retail stores inside the casino. Imagine a Macy’s entry right next to the
craps table, what more could you want?

Restaurants are the next big
things in retail; the food court has gone nuclear. Todd English seems to won
this round for now, he’s more ubiquitous than Tommy Bahama. Ethnic foods are
huge, fast food huger, all-you-can-eat buffets – category killers. Where
restaurants used to be stuck in the corners (i.e. foodcourts) they will now be
moved into pricier locations, they will become attractions instead of just
necessaries. Watch for more big names to jump in, Guy Fieri and many more from
the Food channel. Not necessarily because they are good, but because they are
known. In fact, now people actually arrange their vacations around Food channel
restaurants. How many Triple D restaurants have you been to?

Retail itself will continue
on its sad course, same-old, same-old. We shop for price not product, and I’m
no different. Went looking for a slow-cooker the other evening, went to Crate
and Barrel, Sur La Table, Williams Sonoma – all too pricey. Macys, perfect and
at half the price. That’s what’s happening in retail. Is there a chance for the
bespoke clothier? In a mall – not a chance, yet.

For the last forty years,
since the first wave of enclosed malls swept the country, there has been a
revision to the retail model every ten to fifteen years. We are now seeing the
latest in the village square concept: outside, walkable streets, shop after
shop doors, street front windows, big boxes set in the corners, restaurants and
entertainment built into the fabric, just like the town where your grandparents
lived. There is something warm and fuzzy about the place – hard to do, but
works. Good example is Victoria Gardens in Rancho Cucamonga.

Is the mall dead? Hardly.
But as the economy changes so will these retail dreadnaughts. Denser retail,
more leisurely, richer interiors, more natural light, more elegant parking
garages, and better treatment of customers (now guests). This is the most
competitive business model in America: wringing a buck out of the consumer, if
you can make them happy, they will do it gladly.

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About Me

Greg was born in 1949 in Traverse City, Michigan. Raised near Chicago he moved to California in 1971. The son of a journalist and entrepreneur, Greg has never forgotten his roots; his non-fiction work has focused on the Midwest region. Californian by choice, Mr. Randall makes his home in Walnut Creek, California with his wife, constant companion, and business partner. His preferred fiction genre is mystery/thrillers and historically based novels.